Hi fuzzie,<br><br>I'll quickly summarize the opinions I expressed on IRC:<br>- I agree for the 'extra options' tab. I guess we'll get the best of it the day we have a dynamic layout, so that we may also add game-specific options (such as the BASS alternative intro, for example)<br>
- Your searches about the output rate combo-box make it sound like it's completely useless for users (if not at all) nowadays. It would be great that someone tells the opposite and clarifies the situation<br>- For the 'Music' tab, as I'm not a purist, I have nothing to object. Maybe a mockup screen is the next step?<br>
<br>I also wonder if we wouldn't benefit in introducing a 'standard' and an 'expert' mode we could use to hide some more complex options which confuse users. <br><br>Best regards,<br>Arnaud<br><br><br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 24, 2011 at 11:04 AM, A. Milburn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:fuzzie@users.sourceforge.net">fuzzie@users.sourceforge.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Hi,<br>
<br>
A few ramblings about GUI options so they don't just get lost in the IRC<br>
logs. They're not complete but they *are* trying to be practical rather<br>
than ideal solutions which we might never get around to implementing<br>
(also I don't have much time this week, so if I said something really<br>
stupid, sorry!):<br>
<br>
* I'd like to suggest just adding an 'Extras' tab for all the argued-over<br>
enhancements. 'EGA undithering', 'mixed AdLib/MIDI mode', 'original<br>
save/load dialogs', 'copy protection' and 'prefer synthesized effects'<br>
could all go there, it would provide a single place for users to go<br>
for this stuff, and it would help with arguments about defaults if we<br>
can just have an obvious place in the global options where people can<br>
go and make their game 'better', without compromising the idea that<br>
we should default to original interpreter behaviour.<br>
<br>
There's enough space for 6 checkboxes in there, more if we made the<br>
labels shorter. I realise that there might be an argument about this<br>
making the UI trickier on 320x200, but it doesn't seem that bad to me.<br>
The only trouble would be that we don't have the space for single-game<br>
options (like the alternative intros), but as far as I know no-one is<br>
too bothered about those.<br>
<br>
I think we can probably get rid of other less useful options and free<br>
up some space anyway, which leads me to the rest of this..<br>
<br>
* The 'Output rate' combobox seems a bit pointless to have in the main<br>
GUI. A lot of the backends override this themselves, and everything<br>
except some of the SDL-based ones (not all) and the PSP backend<br>
ignore the config setting.<br>
<br>
We seem to default to 22khz on desktop platforms, something which dates<br>
back in commit history to the first sound support. Can we not default<br>
to 44khz on backends which can reasonably handle that and don't just<br>
ignore the config anyway, and otherwise leave this as a fairly obscure<br>
config option?<br>
<br>
* The 'Graphics mode' combobox seems a bit oddly used too - on various<br>
backends it's empty because there's no choice of mode, the Dreamcast<br>
backend provides one single mode, the PSP backend seems to use it to<br>
provide 'keep aspect ratio' and 'full screen' options. Obviously it<br>
*is* used on many backends though, so this is just an observation.<br>
<br>
* Is the 'MT-32' tab necessary for backends which can't be connected<br>
to real hardware but can run the emulators? Would it be possible to<br>
just move the combobox to the 'MIDI' tab if the only options are<br>
emulators for which we know whether they support GM/MT-32 natively,<br>
or are those options important even with an emulator used?<br>
<br>
* In that vein, can't we rename the 'MIDI' tab to Music, plonk the<br>
'AdLib emulator' option into it too, and then move the 'Volume'<br>
tab into 'Audio' with the space left by removing two comboboxes,<br>
at least on small-screen devices? Crazy? (I haven't tried it.)<br>
But it would be less confusing to *me*, at least.<br>
<br>
(Obviously if we could instead just have a single tab with the<br>
audio device configuration that might be a much nicer way of doing<br>
it, I just know that *I'm* not capable of making that work.)<br>
<br>
Comments/mockery/etc are welcome.<br>
<br>
- fuzzie<br>
<br>
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